Researchers create single-photon server

Researchers create single-photon server

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics look to be doing their namesake proud, creating a single-photon server that could eventually lead to some significant advancements in quantum computing. The server was created by trapping a single Rubidium atom in a vacuum chamber and applying a laser pulse to it, which caused it to spit out one photon at a time. The key bit, it seems, is that the photons generated are of much higher quality than those derived using other methods, meaning that can essentially be made indistinguishable from one another -- a key requirement for quantum computing. With that considerable feat under their belt, the team, led by Professor Gerhard Rempe, have now set their sights on even less easily understandable experiments, including the case of the deterministic atom-photon and those always problematic atom-atom entanglements.